Three Days
by ChrisCorso
Summary: A story challenge: write about Rita's experience during the three days Chris Lorenzo was unconscious after being shot in Black Heart and waking up in Natural Selection.
1. Day 1: Nightmares

This story is based upon a writing challenge from my friend, reader, and fellow Silk writer-Eagle32nd. The challenge: write about Rita's experience during the three days Chris Lorenzo was unconscious after being shot in Black Heart ep. 3.22 and waking up in Natural Selection ep 4.1. This story also references and uses my non-canon meeting of Chris and Rita as children see "First Impressions" and "The Hurricane" to read more about this.

Three Days By Chris Corso

Day 1: Nightmares

The doctor's question still echoed in Rita's exhausted mind. 'Are you his wife?' She closed her swollen and bloodshot eyes as she recalled her reply. 'No…' she'd replied softly, 'his partner…'

'_Just his partner?' That's always the open question, _Rita mused.

She'd been asked about her relationship with Chris so many times. Her ex-boyfriends asked and Chris' numerous ex-girlfriends asked, and even Rita's girlfriends at work wondered. The latter's questions always contained a mixture of envy and disbelief that she wasn't with Chris Lorenzo.

'_They just don't understand the way it is between us',_ Rita cried to herself. '_We love each other, but we're not in love.' _

It was her standard reply. A truthful reply. She never allowed herself to feel envy for Chris' various girlfriends or the warm, sexy feelings he often produced in her. That just wasn't allowed. But why, she wondered, did the doctor's legitimate question, and Rita's response, bother her so?

'God I'm so tired…' she glanced down at her badly hurt partner, as he laid unconscious in a hospital bed. 'I almost lost him. I _still_ could lose him,' she reminded herself.

That was how she'd found him. Unconscious-in a bed-with that woman. The insane and homicidally jealous Debra Bouchard. She'd tried her best to kill Rita, but failing that, she went after the one thing that mattered most to Rita—Chris.

The beeping of the EKG, or some other device, startled Rita. 'He's not breathing!' her befuddled mind screamed erroneously. That's what she'd cried out when she first discovered Chris' condition.

Rita placed a trembling hand on his chest-she felt his heart beating strongly-the door opened and a young nurse came in. She smiled reassuringly and moved to the machine controlling the IV drip.

"He's fine, Ms. Lance," she smiled again to reassure Rita. "I just have to change this IV." Rita nodded, but remained mute, as she recalled that this same nurse had, initially, greeted her as Mrs. Lorenzo. Rita hastily drew back to allow the nurse more room to work. The nurse, in spite of her youth, worked quickly and with assurance as Rita watched.

"All done here," she made ready to leave, but paused and looked at Rita with compassion and concern. "It's late. Past visiting hours… but you're staying with him?"

Rita swallowed hard and nodded. "Yes. He's my partner, my best friend." She glanced at Chris and tried to curb her tears.

The nurse nodded in return and observed casually, "The room chairs suck. You'd think they'd invest in something better for," she paused, "_family members_ who stay the night." She studied Rita with interest and smiled again. "Let me get you a blanket and pillow. The main cafeteria is closed 'til morning, but the staff one stays open all night. Let me know if you get hungry, okay?"

"Thank you," Rita smiled at the young nurse. "That's very kind of you, but I don't think I can eat or drink or do anything else but worry." Rita paused but went on with uncharacteristic candor. "I can't stop thinking he won't..." She wouldn't say it out loud.

"We always hope for the best, but it would be wrong of me to say he's out of danger." The nurse seemed to be wrestling with her thoughts but finally exclaimed, "He'll need you when he wakes up. You seem so close…" She sighed and withdrew, leaving Rita with her tangled thoughts and fears.


	2. Day 2 Awake and Dreaming

Day 2: Awake and Dreaming

Rita looked at her haggard face and unkempt hair in the mirror. The hospital lighting didn't help, she realized... "_You're a mess Lance_," Rita muttered to her reflection.

'_Lance_,' she considered her name silently.

She missed her adoptive parents, the Lances, so much. She missed her father, and the birth-mother she never knew. She'd lost so many people over her life—-family, friends, and even lovers turned killers. Would she have to add Chris to that list? She couldn't endure it. Would she even survive it?

She roughly dragged a comb through her hair and finally giving up pulled it back into an untidy ponytail_. 'I need to do something about my hair. Maybe cut it shorter._" She considered her options silently, and couldn't stop herself from wondering how Chris would like her with shorter hair.

He'd like it. Chris always supported her decisions. He might not agree, he might argue his case, but he'd always be honest about his feelings. **His feelings. ** The phrase made her pause. What were Chris's feelings for her?

He loved her, that much she was sure about. She'd known that for a long time, since that magical week, the week they'd spent together as children. She knew because he'd told her. She smiled at the memory of a nine-year-old Christopher Lorenzo.

"_Rita?" Chris called to his new friend, Rita Fontana, the girl who was quickly becoming his best friend. "Can I ask you a question?" _

_Rita looked up at him, and raised an inquisitive eyebrow, as he helped her to the top of what, in a more rugged state wouldn't even be worth calling a hill, but for coastal Florida, it was quite a steep hill. She said nothing, at first, as they both settled down to look over the modest, but pretty, vista. _

"_Sure you can. What is it?" Rita grinned at Chris and he grinned back, but after a moment she noticed his blue eyes looked suddenly sad and distant. _

"_Have you told anybody you loved them?" Chris was afraid to ask what seemed, to him, such a silly question, but to his relief, Rita seemed to understand what he was trying to say. _

"_I told my Daddy all the time… But it didn't… He started getting quieter and quieter… I thought... I thought if I told him how much I loved him he'd change. It didn't help." Rita brushed away her tears, as Chris rubbed her back consolingly. _

"_I know," Chris admitted, "I say it to my parents too, but they still leave me, not listen to me. But my Grandma Rose, I know she means it. I wish I could stay here, stay with her, and… stay with you." _

_Rita didn't want to think of Chris ever leaving her. "The Lances say it all the time too, but…" Rita shrugged her shoulders. "I can't say it back, not yet. I think they understand, but I know it makes them sad." Chris nodded but fell silent as they watched the sun begin to set on a beautiful summer's day. _

"_You're my best friend Rita," Chris suddenly exclaimed. "I'm closer to you than to anybody else, but my grandma. I love you, Rita. I really do." _

_At this Rita's green eyes danced and glowed in a way that made Chris' heart flutter. She brought out feelings in him that he would not understand for many more years. _

_Rita's heart fluttered in return and butterflies took flight in her stomach. "I love you too, Chris. I'll always love you." _


	3. Day 3: Good Morning Sunshine

_Day 3: Good Morning Sunshine_

"_Have you ever loved anyone that much? " Chris Lorenzo asked his partner, as he rubbed her feet, and referenced the relationship between a suspect and his girlfriend-both part of their most recent murder investigation. _

"_Not yet. Must be fantastic and scary," she added hastily. "You?" she prompted. _

_Chris smirked, "Two times a year for a few months." Rita laughed and rolled her eyes as Chris gently took her hands and kissed them. "Don't worry you'll get your chance."_

"_Yeah maybe," she replied, half-heartedly. "Can I get you a pizza, partner?" She asked hopefully. _

"_I can't. Not tonight." He looked genuinely regretful. "Melissa is keeping something warm for me." He grinned broadly. _

"_Yeah, I bet!" Rita replied acidly. Trying to hide her disappointment. She watched him go. She stared after him, in her silent apartment, for a long time. _

Rita awoke with a start and looked across at Chris in the dim light and stillness of his hospital room. He was still there, still alive, and still fighting. She looked at her watch: 3:30 AM, day number three. During the brief moments that she slept her dreams were so vivid, and so filled with memories of her life with Chris. As she slipped back to sleep she remembered another time, when the truth of their feelings came tantalizingly close to the surface.

"_Look Chris. Loving and being in love are two different things," Rita was trying to rationalize why she was targeted by Chris's enemy, serial rapist/murder 'Good Time Charlie', instead of Chris' girlfriend, Ricky. Chris didn't seem to be buying her explanation, and his pensive mood was making her uncomfortable. She was glad when Chris' girlfriend arrived to pick him up. _

Rita's dream moved forward in time to a case; to an event, that forced her to confront her feelings about Chris. Her response was to run, to not accept her feelings, although, in truth, she hadn't been sure what her feelings meant until now. Dick Plasmier's command droned in her head.

"_**Now think about the future!"**_

_At this Rita stiffened and her blood turned to ice. The wonderful feelings of peace and happiness vanished and were replaced by feelings of loss and loneliness. She dropped Chris' hands and looked away. She didn't want him to see the tears in her eyes. _

Rita's mind knew the truth. She'd pulled away from Chris because, as she gazed into his eyes, she saw a future with him and not just as his best friend. She saw them admitting their love, marrying, having a family, basically having everything she wanted, but those wonderful possibilities were pushed aside by a constant dread. A constant theme in her life—the loss of those she loved the most. Rita flinched in her sleep at the wail of an ambulance, and her own tortured appeal to Chris.

"_Don't you leave me, Christopher!" Her heart shattered. She might lose him! _

'_It's a choice,' Rita's unconscious mind whispered. 'Love and maybe lose, or never take the chance. Make a choice!' _

A barely audible voice broke through her doubt and reached her heart. It called to her. "Rita, Rita." It was Chris!

Her eyes opened and she prayed it wasn't yet another dream. It wasn't. She saw Chris looking at her. He greeted her. "Good morning, Sunshine!"

The End


End file.
